Sponsored Posts and Affiliate Relationships
August 4, 2009 by Jenn @ Frugal Upstate
Filed under General Frugality
Time for a little administrative information.
As time has gone on and Frugal Upstate has gained in popularity, I have been offered more and more opportunities. Some of those opportunities include sponsored posts.
Now I know that I have an official, totally “legalese” disclaimer clearly marked in tabs at the top of my blog that covers both the “I am not an expert” type disclaimers and then farther down contains the “I am sometimes compensated” disclaimer, but I wanted to write something that clearly laid out my philosophy that I could link back to whenever I have a sponsored post.
Right now there is a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about “transparency” when it comes to compensation & payment. Of course I want to do what those in the business consider fair, ethical and professional-but that is not why I am writing this. The standard disclaimer covers me as far as that goes. What I am really concerned about is my relationship with you, my readers.
You all come to me and read what I write because you trust me and believe in me. If you didn’t come, there might still be a blog~but it would have no reach, no audience! No one time payment of any type is worth losing your trust forever.
So here is the deal.
The straight scoop.
Yes. I will do paid campaigns~but only in two cases: #1-that they provide relevance to you, my readers or #2-that they offer a prize or compensation to my readers that is significant. I promise to let you know clearly when a brand has sponsored a post (ie “Company XYZ offered me the opportunity. . .) but I will not necessarily disclose exactly what the compensation is.
Sometimes these paid campaigns will include asking me to write on a topic and mention their product. Again if it is relevant to my audience I may choose to do so~but I will always balance mention of the brand with frugal options. All of these posts will be both tagged & categorized as “sponsored”
And let’s face it, if someone offered to send me to Disney with my family and then write about the experience, I’d do it! But my articles would center around how to enjoy the park on a budget. Not that anyone has offered 
Yes. I will do reviews. 90% of the time I will require the company to also provide a giveaway in conjunction with the review in order to provide value to you, the reader. If the items is clearly something that is beneficial to a frugal audience then I may choose to do an occasional review without an associated giveaway. The Energizer battery rechargers are an example of this.
When I do reviews I will give my honest opinions~both pro’s and con’s. When applicable I will mention frugal alternatives. If I receive an item to review and I hate it, I give the company providing the item the courtesy of my feedback in private and then give them the option of wether or not they would like me to publish the review. All reviews will be tagged and categorized as “Review”
Yes. I will form affiliate relationships. Affiliate relationships are when a blogger gets some sort of comission for readers clicking through or purchasing from a particular company or brand. These can either be as banners/ads or as text links. I promise to only choose affiliates that I truly believe in either as a brand or as someone who offers a true value to you, the reader. For each affiliate relationship I will write an individual disclosure blog post announcing the affiliate relationship before I start using the links or ads. All of these disclosure posts will be tagged and categorized “affiliate”.
Some examples of they types of companies I have formed affiliate relationships with are the USO, Skype, and Restaurant.com.
If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me using my contact form.
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You did not need to share all of this with us, yet I find myself grateful to you for your honesty and concern for all of us, your devoted readers! Thank you for considering us in your decisions, and I truly do hope someone offers you that Disney Vacation! Best to you and thank you for this amazing (my favorite!) blog!
Reviews and giveaways seem to be clogging up the blog world. Truthfully, they are my least favorite entries to read. I really wish that companies would find a different way to advertise their products. Its turning blogs into one big commercial. Bleh!
Yuck. Money corrupts in blogs as in politics.
I’m slowly cleaning out my reader of blogs who so reviews/sponsored giveaways. It’s a total snooze. Glad you benefit from it. I wonder when the fad will end…